Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, a service search method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium and, more particularly, to a technique of searching for a service on a network from a mobile terminal connectable to the Internet or an intranet.
Description of the Related Art
When the user searches for a service provided on a network using a mobile terminal, it is conventionally possible to search for a desired network service using a network service search protocol (mDNS (Multicast DNS), WS-Discovery (Web Services Discovery), SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol), SLP (Service-Location Protocol), or the like). Since such a service search protocol adopts a multicast technique, it is also possible to search for a service on a different network adjacent to a connected network.
As another service search means, there is provided a technique in which if a wireless LAN access point itself provides a service, the service is opened to the public as access point information, and the information is obtained to identify the service (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-521190).
Although using such a network service search protocol technique enables to search for a service on an adjacent network, this is limited to networks in which multicast communication is possible. It is, therefore, impossible to search for a service provided on a separated network or a network in which multicast communication between networks is interrupted.
Consider, for example, a case in which there is a printer on a network created by a WiFi Direct compatible terminal (to be referred to as a WiFi Direct terminal hereinafter). In this case, if the user terminal searches for a print service while connecting to a network other than a WiFi Direct network, it cannot find a print service connected to the WiFi Direct terminal. In addition to the WiFi Direct network, the same problem arises when the user terminal is connected to a network which cannot perform multicast communication with a network where a printer is set up.
Assume that a network connected with a printer which the user wants to use is different from that connected with a mobile terminal. In this case, even if the user attempts to physically specify the printer to detect a print service, it may be impossible to detect the print service.
To solve this problem, the user may manually switch the network connected with the user terminal for each service search, thereby searching for services on all networks. This method, however, complicates the user operation, which is cumbersome. Furthermore, the search result of a search in each network is individually displayed. Consequently, it is impossible to collectively check the service search results, and thus it is difficult to determine a service to be used by comparing the respective search results with each other.